PayPal or Stripe, Which is better for WooCommerce ?

WooCommerce has by far established itself as the standard eCommerce plugin for WordPress and is the most commonly used and easily customizable solution for online stores. While setting up an online store, setting up your payment gateway can be confusing and the more often than not, the discussion comes down to paypal and stripe, which is better and what to use? Lets try and discuss in details about these payment gateways and help site owners decide which is a better option for them.

Paypal & Stripe

PayPal is a subsidiary of eBay providing online payment solutions for consumers and merchant all across the globe. It has made online payments extremely easy and payments can be sent and received by using just an email address, PayPal also allows easy integration with WooCommerce and has default features enabling multiple integration types. Stripe is a new but a robust entrant into the world of online payment describing itself as a suite of services for payment processing and commerce solutions. Like PayPal, Stripe can also be easily integrated into WooCommerce.

 

PayPal – Pros

PayPal is definitely one of the most powerful payment gateways backed by a secure infrastructure and easy to use integration solutions. Here are some points that make PayPal a force to reckon with with in the online payment world.

1. Easy Integration with WooCommerce
2. Flat fees starting from 2.9% + 35c per transaction depending on the type of account you hold
3. All transactions are backed by a solid buyer protection program
4. Allows merchants to access their funds immediately
5. Allows buyers to link multiple payment sources including cards and bank account to make the process flexible
6. Has a global footprint and is available across 180+ countries
7. Extremely customizable plugin for WooCommerce

PayPal – Cons

Despite being used as one of most common payment gateways for WooCommerce all across the world, PayPal does have its fare share of issues making it difficult at times especially for merchants to access their funds and make counterclaims. Here are a few points we think PayPal could definitely improve on to further its reach.

 

1. PayPal can be very quick to limit access to your account and funds and at times without proper reason. If you are based out of the US and receive sums higher than a preset value, even genuine transactions are flagged and it could take weeks to get it resolved.
2. With every transaction backed a protection guarantee for buyers, that luxury isn’t afforded to the sellers making it extremely frustrating at times for merchants to fight disputes. There has been instances where a seller has followed everything to the dot, shipped the product and lost a dispute on a bogus claim, something to think about !!
3. PayPal is notorious for charging extras for services that doesn’t fall within its realm of standard services, and those charges can very quickly add up hence due diligence is recommended about every possible service required and the charges they might incur before accepting payments.

Stripe – Pros

Stripe is equally popular these days and can be rightfully classified as an worthy opponent to PayPal for WooCommerce payment integration or online payments in general. Although new, stripe has aggressively expanded and is now available throughout many countries. Here are a few points as to why Stripe could be worth looking into as a WooCommerce payment option:

1. Stripe is equally easy to integrate as a payment option on a WooCommerce store, the integration plugin is found on WordPress repository which be installed with just a few clicks. After logging in with your login details and allowing the site for functionality permissions, you are good to go.
2. While the base charges for use is almost similar with stripe charging 2.9% + 30c per transaction, Stripe has a flat fee structure and charges the same amount for all approved transactions. This is one of the best features comparative to PayPal.
3. Stripe offers a suite of payment products useful for online merchants including subscription, invoices, coupons and much more.
4. The software development kit (SDK) is much more customizable allowing developers to control multiple aspects of the integration instead of just a button with PayPal.

Stripe – Cons

Stripe while being equally good and secure as a payment gateway tool for WooCommerce, here are some points you might want to consider before going the stripe route for WooCommerce: 

1. Stripe is equally stringent when it comes to freezing funds and terminating accounts but our experience has placed stripe as a better alternative then PayPal in regards to this. Even with stripe cross borders payment and international account are the one that mostly face this problem.
2. While great for developers, customizing multiple aspects and its many features can be quite complicated for online store owners, and as its been proven time and again, relying on your developer for everything you want to customize can be an expensive ordeal.

Which is better, PayPal or Stripe?

For accepting online payments with WooCommerce online store, both are very competent and secure options, both options work flawlessly and are competitively priced and the choice of either one would come down to personal preferences. one should consider factors like payment methods, costs, payout schedules, global assistance, and security measures before making their pick. Testing out both gateways for a trial period before choosing one is always a great way to get started. I personally prefer stripe over paypal for all the pros listed on this article.

 

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